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We are all veterans of one thing or another and I am a Veteran of the United States Navy. Although I occupy the blog, rest easily, this is not a military occupation.

I joined the Navy because my grandfather had been in the Navy (in The Big One) and his stories were better than his brothers’ who were all in the Army (Over There). That, and I love the uniforms.

I joined in the late 70s and went to boot camp at RTC Orlando (which has since closed), where I learned how to march, properly fold skivvies, and swab a deck with grace and flair. I shared a room (a big one) with 79 other women. Note to grad students: boot camp would make for an interesting study on assimilation and acculturation of a disparate band of individuals into one cohesive unit in twelve weeks. This is accomplished through sleep deprivation, spontaneous PT, and withholding cigarette breaks.

Spontaneous PT (Physical Training) means that at any moment, for any reason (such as skylarking, which means your eyes are looking anywhere but straight ahead), the unit is ordered to do push-ups, jumping jacks, and sit ups until we all learned the skylarker’s lesson. Boot camp is not an ideal environment for those who have issues with authority.

Going in, I figured that if 10% of the population is gay, there would be seven other Lesbians in my unit. Boy was I wrong–I knew nothing of the word demographics at the time. There were like 25! Imagine twelve weeks of secretive knowing glances. These were the days before DADT. For being such a bad thing, DADT was much better than what came before it: periodic witch hunts resulting in a thinning of the ranks and friends turning on friends to save their own necks.

I went to a Navy school in San Diego and learned a trade. Like my grandfather, I ended up in Hawaii. I was stationed at the Naval Submarine Base in Pearl Harbor and repaired subs. If you’ve never been inside a submarine, I highly commend it. In this tiny, seaworthy, stealthy, warring vessel are all the makings for the likes of 60-125 men to live, work, eat, and rest. That’s a lot of stuff, cleverly arranged for form, fit, function. Off duty, I learned about Pidgin English, sushi, pakalolo, Hula’s, shave ice, and how it feels to be a racial/ethnic minority.

I was lucky enough to serve during “peace time.” I put that in quotes, because there’s always something going on in the world. At the base, we’d occasionally see boats come in that looked like they went through the wrong neighborhood. We said nothing, repaired them, and they were gone as quietly as they came. In my particular time, there was the Iran Hostage Crisis. I happened to be on a plane flying home for leave when the hostages were freed. I was flying in uniform because we were told if there was ever an extra seat in first class, they would likely give it to a service person in uniform. When the pilot made the announcement, everyone cheered and lots of people bought me drinks.

While I support a strong military, I would prefer to exhaust other possibilities before engaging in war. If those don’t work, war it is. If we are threatened or attacked, war it is. I am not for preemptive strikes nor am I for bullying.

I took exception with George W. Bush who, during a debate with Al Gore, said, “the purpose of the military is to fight and win wars.” When I swore in, I agreed to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” A subtle distinction. (Ironically, that was his argument against nation-building.) Nonetheless, it is called the Department of Defense (changed from the Department of War in 1949) and so I am far more inclined towards defending and not aggressing.

I was taught in boot camp that the primary goal of the Navy (and the reason our country went through the expense of developing a strong navy) is to keep the sea lanes open. This is for trade as well as for security and defense reasons. As it happens, there have been relatively few conflicts, police activities, or wars in my lifetime where the safety and freedom of my country and fellow citizens were at stake. Mostly, we’ve engaged our military to “protect American interests in the region.” That’s administration-speak for trade. We may couch it in other terms, like we’re helping other people achieve either stability or democracy, but generally, we want to buy their stuff and we want them to buy ours. Of course, if we can alleviate egregious human rights violations (without jeopardizing our other “interests in the region”) we will.

I am glad that we have a different attitude towards our vets coming home now than we did when I was in high school—the Vietnam Era vets. We need to take care of the people who we expect to be prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, whether that preparation gets put to the test or not. I think the best way we can honor and care for our vets is to help re-assimilate and re-acculturate them into civilian society. The Department knows a bit about that and I’m sure if they spent some time thinking about it, they could even do it in twelve weeks.

Thank you to everyone who served and everyone who has a friend or relative that served or serves. If you’re in CT, Miranda Vineyards is giving a free wine tasting to Veterans on Sunday and Monday.

In the old country there was a saying which, for a while at least captured the spirit of the nation. When faced with the magical opportunity of getting one wish come true, that’s what one wished: that the neighbor’s goat die. Not a goat for himself, or maybe two. No. That the neighbor’s die. It’s the same spirit animating the voters for the two party candidates as fueled by the media: you want the other guy’s goat to die. Forget that you are unemployed, about to lose social security, sent to wars and spied on. The most important thing in your life is to get the other guy’s goat dead. Dead. dead. dead.

We practice goat death wish here when we elect our leader. We also practice the nanny-nanny-boo-boo, middle finger erecting, your mother is a hampster and your father smells of elderberry – school of politics.

Hillary went to Myanmar a while ago. I read obama went there right after the election. Today they had a quake, a bad one and they are calling it ominous. They should blame obama for the quake… just like wimmenz and gays get blamed for other disasters by the right wing and by Iranian nut jobs.

“The uppermost parts of the domes usually contain encased relics of the Buddha and small Buddha images, and sometimes jewels. Damage to them is taken as an especially bad omen.”

It gives me pleasure to shoot any snake that thinks I can share my space with it. Shiver.

I do not visit homes that house reptiles. I am not comfortable in the same air space with them. Fortunately, I know of very few of them. To me, they are prehistoric and were accidentally missed during the wipeout, because they are sneaky. Look at the creatures that survive all earth’s eras and what they have in commmon, including cockroaches. They are all surrepticious feeding opportunists who bear resemblence in some way to extinct creatures.

Excellent post, thanks for sharing your insights. It’s funny when all the brew haha came up about the navy during one of the debates, I said almost exactly the same thing to someone about shipping lanes/trade. I think it’s interesting that neither candidate ever mentioned it, says a lot.

Upps, crocs and gators are fun to see. I love the everglades and all kinds of swampy critter filled areas. Since I turned 55 I’ve been looking at the southern warm states and think I will end up in a retirement 55+ community in Mid-Florida Atlantic coast – Daytona region but not too close to the beach area. I can go pick up my next Uppity mug in person… maybe. I am sick of NEPA – almost 10 years here with snow and leaves and little backwards towns. I am ready to move on. I think I can find a job there since I will do literally any job till something better comes along and I have lots of experience in lots of fields.

An interesting footnote to file under “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The reason we got serious about a Navy and keeping the sea lanes open was because of the pirates on the Barbary Coast who were kidnapping our traders for outrageous ransoms.

In March 1785, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams went to London to negotiate with Tripoli’s envoy, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman (or Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). Upon inquiring “concerning the ground of the pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury”, the ambassador replied:

It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise. He said, also, that the man who was the first to board a vessel had one slave over and above his share, and that when they sprang to the deck of an enemy’s ship, every sailor held a dagger in each hand and a third in his mouth; which usually struck such terror into the foe that they cried out for quarter at once.

SophieCT, my aunt is very glad to have served as well. She was a nurse. She came down with a South Pacific jungle fever that still causes physical problems but she does not regret her service. I have letters she wrote home during the war. They are fascinating to read.

Karen I sold my parents’ florida home. I do not appreciate waterway rats and colorful snakes sunning themsevles on my newspaper. And getting an opportunity to see alligators and crocs and 100 foot constrictors is not my idea of sport. And I don’t like cockroaches you can put a saddle on and pretend to call them something else. Also i like seasons. It’s preferable to summertime when the blacktop is so hot, your shoes think they came into contact with bubble gum. But if you’re into it, hey have fun. The creatures that run roughshod in the south are the Number One reason I will never move. Truth is, not too many self-respecting reptiles can survive up here and that is just fine with me.

I would suggest that we support the subclasses of Reptiles that get a bad names from the vermin. Turtles, terrapins and tortoises surely do not deserve to be lumped in with snakes, lizzards, crocs and gators.

TY Sophie. And ty to all who served. As for reptiles I really do like them. Not a great fan of snakes but I love lizards. Turtles are awesome too. I have had a few pet lizards and will catch them and put them in my yard. If a snake happens to take up residency I would not kill it unless it was a rattler or one that could eat a dog. If it is there taking out the field mice more power to it. I love rodents too but do not want them invading my home.

That reminds me…my affection for single malts tracks back to my Navy days. I already liked Scotch when I joined, but only blends (I know–mea culpa). In those days, I was pretty darned good at preparing a 4.0 uniform for inspections. Hard to believe, but I liked ironing and liked shining shoes. I really enjoyed putting military creases in shirts and did not overdo it on the starch. (I am not like this anymore, if you’re wondering.)

Anyway, this guy asked if I would prepare his uniform in exchange for a bottle of Scotch–really good Scotch, he said. It worked out–he got his 4.0 uniform and I got my first bottle of Glenlivet. He was right, it was really good, and I haven’t looked back. (Although I am a Cardhu fan now and highly recommend it. Still Speyside, though.)

On this “Covert Affair” topic, I am getting really perturbed that the Tweet/Blog/news slant is that he is a hero and a really good guy and should not resign WHILE SHE is nothing but an ambitious Ho. Yup, he’s a hero for doing a stellar job while Effing around on his wife on the side and she deserves an honor killing for humiliating her family and ruining this hero’s career.

Hey Sophie while you were in Hawaii did you ever happen upon a tall, thin, jug eared, half white-half AA teenager that thought he was so cool? Ever once? Maybe in a bar, maybe stumbled upon he and his choom gang?

Karen don’t let UW scare you about the reptiles and bugs here in FL. Sure we have snakes and gators, but it’s not like Jurasic Park, LOL! I’ve lived here my entire life, happened upon a gator once. Once in my life which equals quite a few years…….OK half a century. The one time btw was only a couple of months ago and it was a baby gator walking across the road in my son’s neighborhood. Now you do see them in the waterways from time to time, but I’m talking one close by.

Snakes, well there are a lot more of those but most aren’t poisonous. There are no good snakes in my opinion btw, kill them all!! That being said I wouldn’t exhaust my fingers and toes if I used them to count up the number of snakes I’ve seen slither through my yard or stumbled upon on an ill advised trip through the woods. So it’s not like our streets and yards are a scene from Indiana Jones!

Bugs, meh you can keep roaches away it’s the mosquitoes and gnats that are the real menace. Also, yellow flies twice a year.

If that’s the area you’re interested in look just to the north and south of Daytona too. The space coast area is hard hit so you may find some good deals. Ormond Beach, Flagler Beach and Palm Coast are just to the north, each having their good and bad points. North of that is St. Augustine which you might really like too. Anyway you’re talking about areas near me, so if you have questions I’d be happy to help you if I can.

Nice post, Sophie. Thanks for sharing your story and for serving this country. One of my dear Aunties was also in the Navy, but late 1940’s.

It’s interesting that the military oath seems to be the same as the federal civilian employee oath. I think Bush did misinterpret it when he decided to use our military (and some civilians) to spread democracy.

And one thing for which I will give obama some credit is that he signed an EO requiring the feds to emphasize hiring veterans. I believe that was done in 2009. Although there has always been a veterans preference, he at least stood behind it. A lot of the 100,000 feds hired under him are vets. The repubs don’t like to mention that when they are carping about bigger government.

Apparently Patreaus’ concubine sent some harassing emails to a couple who are friends with him and his wife. Or something. Now the boys can blame her completely. It wouldn’t have happened if she didn’t rape him, surely.

The recipient of the e-mails was so frightened that she went to the FBI for protection and help tracking down the sender, according to the officials. The FBI investigation traced the threats to Paula Broadwell, a former military officer and a Petraeus biographer, and uncovered explicit e-mails between Broadwell and Petraeus, the officials said.

……..

The law enforcement officials said the e-mails indicated that Broadwell perceived the other woman as a threat to her relationship with Petraeus.

See what you get when you think with your dick and imagine power exempts you?

Somebody, thanks for the advice! I go to Fla every year. I have relatives there and have always wanted to retire there – I am from NY – it is the law. I like Port Orange and it is very affordable and has tons of amenities and jobs. I love Augustine but it is pricy. Space coast is a ghost town – everything is boarded up and foreclosed in Titusville area – even the JC Penny and the 7-11 are out of business. Sad.

I have snakes, mice, chipmunks, deer, bobcats, racoons, black bear, feral cats, possum, flying squirrels and regular grey squirrels galore. I live in the woods so there are critters all the time. I have loads of bats and they get in the house when the weather is hot. I have a gazillion bugs here. It is the woods and there is a lake and a creek very nearby so it is animal central. When it snows the prints around my house look like there was a party going on out there.

Sophie, I cannot afford the tri-state area. When I was married and we lived on two salaries it was ok. Now I need to feed and house myself. Florida is CHEAP and warm year round. PA where I live is affordable but it is hard to deal with the weather. They do have concerts and music festivals in the south and if I miss my festivals I can plan to stay at my daughters in NY for a few days and get my music fix.

I love the ocean. I’ve been a scuba diver since the early 70s. It is fantastic to get in the water there year round. Great for my spirits and great for my old bones.

Upps, it makes me sick how many animals get put down every day. I wish it wasn’t so. I too, like you can’t stand anything remotely bad happening to an innocent animal. It breaks me up.

Utah, when I was down Florida once there was this giant tortoise crossing the street and I got out and helped it to the other side. They have so many turtles there of all kinds – many that lay eggs right on the beaches and they are collected and hatched and released. I’d volunteer to do the overnighters on the beach to lookout for nesters.

Upps, down in the glades they have had two people attacked in the history of the place. One was a kid who fell off his bike and directly onto the gator. Lost his hand. The other was a jerk who was feeding it a chicken by hand. He put the chicken near its mouth and teased the gator with it to bring him closer. He too lost his hand.

There was a bear attack a few miles from me a few years ago. Campers with food. I have a bad habit of leaving my food out in a pot to cool off – sauce, stew, soup pot with lids – so I can put it into freezable containers and into the fridge. One night I put out some beef and it was steaming in the snow and giving off the smell of fresh cooked meat. I went out to stir it and check if it was cool and there was a big animal, it might have been a coyote, on the other side of my fence making growling noises at me. I grabbed the pot and ran like the wind into the house.

I have a pic of me scuba diving and hugging a shark. It is a nurse shark but still… it is a shark and it is between me and my air hose! It even makes my daughter, a diver herself, cringe. I will email you pics so you can put them up.

My life would be a rotten book. Too many chapters I wouldn’t ever want to think about again let alone dwell on. Not like obama – if I wrote a book it would be about something like birding not about me!

Midnight is crying in his cold, dark cage right now, awaiting his death. His meow sounds hauntingly like “Karen, Karen, Karen”. But no one comes to comfort him. He wonders what he has done to deserve his awful fate. He is so lonely and scared.

Captain Wallace is the guy that was taunting the gator with the food and lost his hand. I spoke to an glades guide who works for the park service and saw the whole video of it being taken off his arm after he taunted the animal to lure it in.

The other attacks were in other parts of florida. The glades themselves, according to a guide for the park service, has only had two attacks. The child was saved from further attack by his mom. She got ontop of the gator and beat the crap out of it till it let go of her kid.

Beata I saw him in petsmart and was told it was his last hurrah. He was a surrender. I walked up to his glass cage and put my hand on it and he put his paw on my hand from the other side. Then I moved closer and he rolled over. I could not let this be his end. He is verrrrrrrrrrry happy now. He’s three years old. That’s a hopeless adoption these days.

I promise to get more than one cat and more than one dog again. But first I need to do lots of overtime and second I need to move someplace where I don’t have to clean the ice and snow off my car constantly and where my heating bill is so high that I dress like an eskimo in the house. It is only November and I am sick of it already.

Since 1948, there have been 275 documented attacks on humans in Florida (that is, about five incidents per year), of which at least 17 resulted in death.[32] There were only nine fatal attacks in the US throughout the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s, but alligators killed 12 people between 2001 and 2007. In May 2006, alligators killed three Floridians in less than a week.

Somebody is right, it is not jurassic park. I am more worried about the hurricanes and tornados than the gators and crocs.

You know, when my brother went for his scratch test he knew that the chances of him dying of anaphalaxis were 1 in a million. He’s dead now. The point is, statistics seem trivial ….until you become one of them.

Upps, I got my rescue girl at PetSmart, too. I asked to hold her and she wouldn’t let go of me. She was trembling and purring so loud. She followed me around at home everywhere for the first week. She’s the love of my life.

Sophie, what a wonderful post for today! Thank you! Agree with your commentary about when war is necessary.

I read a book about the poor people who were kidnapped by the Barbary pirates and forced to be slaves for the sultans there. It was a real eye opener. Called White Gold, written by an English historian, Giles something.

Re Petraeus and his bad managing of his personal life, I remember reading how he was one of the two men in charge of our Iraq operations when billions of dollars (real greenbacks flown in there on pallets) and billions in ordnance all disappeared without a trace.

Also, hubbie is having major surgery in the next four weeks, and won’t be able to get up and down the stairs for a while. I have my hands full. We just had a visit about an hour ago from one of the neighbors cats and Laker fed her. She’s a tuxie. Beautiful and dainty.

I still get the parrot for weeks at a time, infact I will have him in December. He would eat the cat. You saw the pic of him drinking out of my Uppity Mug. Talk about dangerous animals. He might be part gator come to think of it. We got him during Hurricane Andrew when the evacuation forced pet stores to sell parrot babies dirt cheap. He was born in Homestead – the gateway to the glades and also the town that was knocked out big time from that storm.

I am pretty sure I will end up with a cat with orange someplace. I had a sweetheart calico and tend to like the multicolor cats. Bill is handsome and downright cute when he isn’t on the nipperoni and chit-faced, but it isn’t for me. I also like small sized cats. Ones that do not make your leg fall asleep when they cuddle on you.

lol. yeah upps, it will clash with my drapes. lol. seriously, we all have personal favorites and things that attract us. I love calico cats, they are fascinating looking and I just want to squish their little faces in my hand as their motors run. And I would never get a little yappy dog or a great dane for that matter although I admire them as other peoples pets. Shepherds got it all going on. Lassie was nothing next to Rin Tin Tin.

In any event, the guy was a powerful man who used it to dip his dick. So what else is new with these guys. As IF that woman thought he was sexy. Naughty and forbidden, maybe. And powerful. But otherwise, pretty decrepit. Let’s see who wants him now …now that he’s got no power.

ROF that tweet was great NES. I go over there at times but just can not seem to get into that thing. Lol I do not have tons of time to even get to these blogs some days. Man I need to slow down and take some time out for me one of these days.

Since the attack of 9/11 there has been incredible amounts of misleading political deception and heaps of smoking gun mentality. I cannot believe how low the new low is for the press corp. They are a plague. If you look at the informative, intelligent, transparent, compliant daily briefings of our Dept of State it is so clear that the anti-obama media, mostly FOX and the Breitbart and full of Hot Air types, just stokes the fire under the ass of their lazy readers. They truly are the counter balance of the lunatics from MSNBC and equally repugnant.

I cringe at how the media carries on at the briefings. Their questions are so uninformed, misleading, insulting, ignorant, and they are clearly loading for bear when they are out hunting bunnies. The diplomatic briefer has to repeat her clear, concise and accurate intelligent answer over and over again while the media is looking desperately for a noose to hang Hillary with. IT IS SICKENING that they politicized Benghazi and tried to make it something that couldn’t have happened under Mitt. If they want to know why Mitt tanked in the past few weeks it might be because the Right tried to paint devils everywhere – even where they didn’t exist.

Our country has suffered many attacks over the years. This time the attack against us became a tennis match of the media. This is why I read instead of having a TeeVee in my house. When Tweety or Hannity speaks they are always full of chit and bias. They get their paycheck from their respective parties. Red team or blue team cheerleaders are NOT a source of news – they are propaganda.

Why can’t some of the PUMAs who fell for obama or for Mitt see this?

The briefings are at the Dept. website and at Still 4 Hill if you want your blood to boil at the non-sense our Walter Cronkites of today dish out.

I had to get that out. They are horrible. Hillary doesn’t deserve this mud slinging horrible treatment. How many times have we heard it reported that State is only allowing brief glances at the documents? It is a lie designed to make Hillary look like she is covering something up.

There is plenty wrong with this obama administration. Why hunt for things that aren’t even there – especially after the horses left the barn?

The Dept of State had several hundred terrorist attack warnings at the time of the attack on Benghazi. They had Embassies under attack in hot spots all across the world just prior to the attack in Libya. They were briefed and help was sent but unfortunately there were no responders in the region who were available to deal with that event since there were loads of events going on and those events included some riots over the video so it isn’t far fetched that the WH got information that there were riots over the video. They responded to the consulate. Some of the so called “pleas for help” were draft letters that were never sent to the Dept. of State or anyone for that matter. If they had been sent and ignored that would be another matter, but the briefings clearly state the State Dept. did their jobs.

The media wants to know what is in the CLASSIFIED documents. No chit. They are hounding the State dept. to learn what is in those docs.

They misinform their puppets about things that are clear as day and they want more fodder to paint an even darker and lying picture.

The 4th estate is gone. Freedom from the press not “of” the press is needed.

Keep going, Karen! The press is a joke. Both sides turn the national conversation onto stupid crap and never ever on the crux of the issues. Let’s blow thousands of news cycles on whether Obama is a socialist or Mitt Romney really has magic underwear and absolutely none of them on whether either of these guys has what it takes to lead this country. Real scrutiny never happens and that’s a great disservice to the people.

Problem is, the press is a business and their “primary fiduciary responsibility is to return share holder value.” Like every other corporation, sales matter more than quality. You would think that with such paltry quality, people would stop buying and sales would go down. But for some reason, people keep buying it.

The press didn’t yell about “no access” to that entire region. There were a few BP chosen imbedded reporters allowed to film small areas of the Gulf – mostly AFTER they’d been swept under or corexited to a slimy bottom death. Cousteau’s grand-daughter put out a film that she called “dead bird island” and it still causes nausea even though I was only able to watch snippets of it. It was in Louisiana. They were setting endangered turtles on fire in their boom rings and nobody peeped about it at all. It should have been obama’s katrina. Bush took the blame – obama – not so much.

That’s what deregulation brings you. Most of the media is now owned by a handful of Goombahs. Dereg the congressional way has been a disaster. They ‘deregged” gas and electric and now you get to pay more. They deregged the airlines and now you are treated like dog shit on your flight, and if you travel with more than the shirt on your back, you pay pay pay. if the flight even makes it without a preventative maintenance problem. They deregged manufacturing and now babies get some nice melamine in their formula, pets die, and toys have lead in them. Because when left to their honor, corporations have proved time and again that they have No honor.

It is also a billion bloggers with no ethics. They are hell bent on revenge and see opportunity to attack the other team with blood lust. It is sickening how many times I read “obama hired petraeus because he knew about the affair and he could blackmail him to do what he wanted” type stuff. It is insane to think that. It is beyond the pale that obama would hire a man to be head of the CIA and his personal puppet because he is boinking some woman. Turns out his affair started AFTER he took the job. But don’t let that stop you from imagining that obama is all evil and knowing and controling.

Obama sucks. Big time. But even the biggest despots in history weren’t THAT good. The cover-ups hinted at on Fox, but the usual crew of talking booby doll heads, are wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Even some bloggers that I loved reading in 08 are now insane. Over the cliff in hatred for obama and ugly now that their beloved republican evil isn’t ruling the country.

As Clavell said in his Sho-gun etc. books – a pox on both their houses. Uppity likes to say that too. 🙂

Evil obama hired Hillary. She took the job and she did well. Her husband is a Democrat for life. Simple enough to comprehend, right?

Romney, Bush I and II, Ryan, Rove and Trump are saints donchaknow and they don’t want to tax the rich for your benefit. Liz Cheney has a moral conservative mandate and she wants you all to be just like her wonderful father. How do people watch her without wretching?

Deregulating things was bad. Folks are impatient and want the latest and greatest which will oft bite you in the ass. I think the FDA went into a tailspin when Laiatril was being used in other countries as a cure for cancer back in the seventies. Yes we could not cure it but neither did these laitril treatments. They masked it and made you feel like you were winning the battle all the while you were dying faster had you chosen the more conventional treatments. They ( conventional) were bad and made you deathly ill and caused damage in and of it’s self but you had a chance to beat it or at least live longer. I chose the conventional method in the seventies and trust me when I say I was never sicker in my life then I was after Chemo but here I am today . Friends that went the other route are 30 + years in the grave. Regulations were there for a reason when the government protected the citizens and gave a shit now they sell out. Politicians are after money and care not how they get it or who they get it from and how many regular folk they kill off doing so. The FDA is a fricking joke. I used to think we were better then other countries now I no longer have that belief. The EPA was at one time good as well but now they are big business and out to kill in their own way too. Folks wanted deregulation of many things just like they want to do away with laws that they do not like and here we are today. Sometimes in fact most times we need to protect ourselves from ourselves . This is why today we have the ” drug of the month” and find out later how many are dying from it.

Yup, I’ve been noticing a fresh pile on against Hillary ever since several polls show her sweeping a 2016 run. Yup, Benghazi was all Hillary’s fault. It pissed me of because they have these tantalizing headlines that imply or assert Hillary’s wrong-doing with nothing at all in the copy. And too many people just skim headlines and don’t read the copy.

Karen, Obama DOES suck. It’s just a big ole tossup. It’s no use thinking shit is ice cream. There was nothing but downsides in this election IMO. That’s why I couldn’t vote for either ticket.

I do think that if the Republicans hadn’t jumped the shark about women and other creatures who are not white males, Romney would have won. Hell, Ryan was my dealbreaker for that very reason. He loves hopping over those sharks.

All I’m seeing from the far right bloggers is the same behavior I saw from the far left with Bush. They are all malicious people when it comes to politics, not even thinking that nothing will change for them no matter what, since both parties have the same masters anyways. It’s all so mentally and physically exhausting, almost self-destructive. I’ve done it for 12 years and frankly, I am not going to waste my life any longer on people who don’t give a shit about you, me or anybody else except themselves and their sponsors. Some people just love misery and fighting and threatening each other. It makes them feel better to lash out at anybody in their way. As if ripping each other’s throats out before an election is going to make what you want to happen, happen. I’ll have none of it. I’m into peace and tranquilty and will do what I have to do just like I did before this election. It’s just too easy to miss the important things in life blogging yourself into high blood pressure and behaving like your circumstances (and we all have them!) is 100% somebody else’s fault.

I hate Obama, the Democrats AND the Republicans AND the media for what they did to Hillary, but I am not going to get sick over it any longer. She can take care of herself. I want you to take care of YOURself. And just don’t read bloggers who are in the throes and upsetting you.

Hey Utah, how about that big experiment where they collected data off the bodies of women who got breast cancer from Hormone Replacement Therapy? When my doctor told me about how it would help avoid a heart attack but is linked to breast cancer, I told her that my address book has names scratched out and none of those women died of a heart attack, but some of them died of breast cancer.

My friends in NY are living day to day still without any electric and with flooded stuff and with dumpsters on the front lawn full of their lives. I have a big cooler and two air mattresses that belong to a friend there and she can use them right now. She kept them here for when she came in for blues fests and summer fun. My daughter will be visiting in the next month or so and will bring them to NY where they can possibly still do some good. I wish somebody could bring them there today but my friends are buying coolers and air mattresses and everything else they need to get by. One is on a wait list for a boiler and it will be many months before they get the call that theirs can be installed.

And blow hards like my ex-congressman Peter King have always had a lot to say about all kinds of things but do nothing at all themselves. He always is johnny on the spot to be on national TV as soon as anything happens and he is always willing to speculate – even though his conjectures are 100% of the time found to be 100% wrong when the facts are released.

oh and upps, you’d have to pull out those torches and pitchforks to drive me off. I like this place. People here are not encouraged to post partisan crapola filled with doo-doo to support their latest fad politico.

70% of Venice is underwater and people are swimming in the filthy and heavily polluted streets filled with it. It was toxic in the 70s so by now it must be lethal. What the hell is the matter with these kids? They are lucky if they do not die from the bugs they are sure to get from this. The carcinogens have long been reported to be off the charts there.

Off topic here, but I just loved the cat lift. Something my husband would do. He went back to visit his family in Egypt ( where they have a long history of worshipping cats) and bought our Maine Coon a 18 kt gold cat charm for his collar as well as a sterling cat charm for his collar. Like the cat cares, sheesh. Hope all had happy Vet’s day and that this country honors its commitment to people like my Father who paid a pretty high price for his right to be outspoken.

Those poor mayans were so busy updating and syncing their Istones that they missed that big red circle on their daily planner for their current century. Thus warnings about imminent dangers to their own time-line went unheeded and those bloody Spaniards headed their way equipped with top of the line weapons and loaded for bear with all those pesky communicable diseases.

In case 12/21 does not work out, I saw that some other group is saying that Isaac Newton predicted the end of the world for 2013. This is evidently a recalculation from the original date attributed to Sir Issac of 2060. Not sure if this was before or after that apple hit his head.

Wow on McAfee, Sophie. What a weird guy.
Interesting discussion about the drug, known in places by the name of “khat.” I believe khat is widely used in Yemen, the birthplace of OBL. Seriously, a large percentage of the male population is addicted.

6:00 a.m. Splash some water on face and run up and down the stairs at ceremonial site (1 hr) .Note to self: Made it up and back 100 times. Need to improve speed.

7:00 a.m. Practice chants and then have some hot chocolate.

7:30 a.m Appointment at Med Pyramid about tummy troubles
Note to self: no more cayenne pepper in the hot chocolate

8:45 a.m. Head off to work. Remind wife to pack picnic basket for tonight.

9:00 a.m. Meeting on progress of end of time calendar. Take donuts. Note to self: Looks like the year is 2012. We thought todays date has a nice ring to is so we are going with 12/21/2012. Like the symmetry of the numbers.

10:30 a.m. Meet with stone carvers. Want something special for end of time calendar.Note: really nice work it’s going to knock the socks off the whole of civilization.

1:30 p.m. Prophecy Planning Commission. Note to self: Commission decided that the review prophecies for upcoming century will be handled at a later date to be determined by entrails reading in 1515.Those crazy ancestors of ours were always going on about guys in shiny helmets and pantaloons and armadas and plagues and some island country where a woman was in charge. What were they smoking.

2:30 p.m. Draft notices of copy write infringement to Aztecs and Egyptians for their use of our pyramid blueprints without permission. Note to self: will need to review personal records and see who might be selling our designs.

Sorry for a late response Uppity but alas I have been at work. Hormone replacement therapy never made a lick of sense to me and having had Ovarian cancer at the age of 20 no doctor was going to talk me into that one. I am positive the pill gave me that too. Anyway I went through menopause naturally and everyone around me caught hell. My mood swings were actually very dangerous to everyone but me lol. In other words all one needed to do is walk into the room and I would tell them ” we are going to fight , pick the subject ”
I seriously believe many women in jail for murder are victims of menopause. I would not recommend it to anyone lmao. My daughter is going through it now at 39 can you believe that ? Everyone stays away from her for self preservation !!I am amazed at the amount of folks I know or have known who have suffered ill fates all from the latest and greatest drug. If a drug has not been on the market for 20 years or more I am not taking it. I want to see how many it has killed rather then helped. I am 60 and still not taking a damn thing. I pop an aspirin from time to time.

I just want to say that, at essentially the 1-week anniversary of the reelection of O, I feel oddly liberated…like a big burden’s been lifted off me. The anger I felt over him and what he/obots did in ’07/’08 is receding because now there’s nothing to be done but wait out four years, in which time I shall focus less on politics and more on life, laughter and literature.

I sincerely hope that Hillary doesn’t run again because I know they won’t give it to her and it’ll just tear open old wounds.

karen, you’re right that Fox is politicizing Benghazi, and that the right are using it to hammer Hillary (and O). I continue to think that Hillary is blameless in this, or at least I will continue to so maintain. That said, I’m not so sure that there’s ‘no there there.’ Stevens was the first US Amb. killed in 30 years. That’s no small thing, especially when it happens on 9/11. But, maybe you’re right, and it’ll all end up being a big nothing…. Still, there needs to be an investigation and some truth-telling by the White House (where I think lies the blame for inaction in the face of our peeps’ cries for help and an errant/dangerously-naive foreign policy that precluded heightened security). We shall see how things roll out. I’m not willing to be one of those Hillary-ites who want the inquiry to stop because they fear, deep down, that it may taint her reputation. If it does, it does — she’s a grown up and takes responsibility for her own acts and omissions. But, as I said, I believe she’ll come out clean.

well, I just spent the better part of the day steam cleaning my sofa and carpet (one of my pre-Thanksgiving chores). Glad I used up a vacation day to celebrate Veteran’s Day in this manner. Although, thanks to the Navy, I am a qualified janitor. I have to say, I don’t miss those big industrial floor buffers. They have a mind of their own. It’s like walking a really big dog.

Rumor has it that Obama may replace Panetta with Kerry. The rumor says he’s saving SoS for Susan Rice (which would make her the fourth woman and second Rice to have that position). I would rather see Obama give SoS to Colin Powell (despite the yellow cake uranium).

I used to think Hillary would never make it past the Senate as a SCOTUS given what a lightening rod she used to be for the Right. But, that’s all changed — she’ll breeze through now. I’m sure the position is hers for the asking, but I hope she doesn’t take it. It’s prestigious, but it’s also like being buried in marble, taking the veil, etc. She needs to be a public persona — confident, joyous in her personal power, and bestriding the world like a Colussus.

NES, it was Hillary who made sure the investigation started immediately. I know of no PUMAs who don’t want a full and thorough investigation. I totally believe Hillary will be as clean as she was during all those vast right wing conspiracy attacks decades ago.

The press has drummed this up in the most sickening manner I have seen in a long time. Last night I worked two shifts back to back (16 hours) and took my break at 10 pm. I went to the breakroom and watched some of Greta. It made me furious all over again. That PIG Liz Cheney was attacking Hillary with LIES that were cleared up weeks ago. It was just awful to see Greta nod at that Cheney spawn.

She said Hillary refused to testify. She said she hopes they do not have to force her to appear for a hearing by subpoena. She said with a tsk tsk attitude that Hillary would be the first SoS that had to be forced to testify… type crap! And she said State was blocking the investigation and so was the CIA and implied even worse bullshit at every sentence from her mouth.

There are neanderthal FOX viewers at my job that think Hillary is leaving in dishonor and that she is being forced out of the SoS position. They learned that from their Right Wing nutjob media conspiracy lunatics.

If LIZ or Greta want to know the truth – they claim State has said nothing at all about Benghazi – then perhaps they should bother to read the State Dept. daily briefings. If Fox reported the truth now and then then they would be aware of the details involving Hillary.

I would bet the house that Hillary did her job and she dotted every i and crossed every t and didn’t in the slightest bit impede investigation. She has, according to the facts at the briefings, made every effort to HELP in every single way and her undersecretaries (and the undersecretaries at CIA etc.) are all standing in and giving full briefings to closed and to open hearings. They are also providing all necessary documentation.